Collections Blog

We will be exploring Mississippi’s rich aviation history in this series. From early flight photographs to the moon landing and beyond, MDAH collections document this exciting part of our past.

The Dutchmen at Jackson Army Air Base. Call Number: Z/0839.001/S (MDAH Collection)

The story of the Flying Dutchmen has become a kind of legend in Jackson. It doesn’t show up in most history books, but if you ask any of our older residents, chances are they’ll tell you stories about them flying under power lines and the like. But what really happened in 1942? Who were the “Flying Dutchmen” of Jackson? Much of this information can be found in the MDAH collection! Here’s the story:

Near the beginning of World War II, Hitler’s Germany overran the Netherlands, and later its colony, the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) was conquered by the Japanese as they attacked southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the Indonesian archipelago. The Dutch were without a home, and more importantly for the war effort, without training bases for their armed forces. This is where Jackson, Mississippi, comes into the story. The Dutch needed a base for a flying school, and General Henry Arnold (head of the U.S. Army Air Force) obliged, choosing Jackson as the new home of the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School.

Old Terminal (c. 1936) at Hawkins Field in 2008

The city was already home to the Jackson Army Air Base at Hawkins Field when the Dutchmen arrived in May 1942, many with their wives and children in tow. Jackson became an international city literally overnight, as the foreign-speaking Dutch and native Indonesians wandered the streets and explored their new home. They delighted in shopping and eating in restaurants, pleasures that were hard to come by in war-ravaged Europe and the Pacific.

The Dutch fliers trained here for nearly two years, and during that time formed warm attachments with the locals, who reciprocated in kind. Some of the Dutchmen married Jackson girls and settled down in Mississippi after the war. Over thirty Dutchmen who were killed in training accidents are buried at Cedarlawn Cemetery in Jackson. Several of airmen and one widow have been buried there in more recent years.

Memorial Day ceremony at Cedarlawn Cemetery in 2009

The monument at the Dutch plot reads: Voor Hen Die Vielen (For Those Who Fell) and lists the fliers killed in training accidents.

Their story has been somewhat forgotten in the annals of Mississippi history, but it is one of Jackson’s hidden treasures, documented here at the archives.

I am so glad you posted this. For years I have heard scant details about the Dutch Air Force in Mississippi during WWII. My cousin remembers when one of their planes crashed about 5 miles outside of Utica, very close to a rural school house. Apparently there were fatalities. I must visit the MDAH & learn more details next time I come home to Mississippi.
Thank you for posting this entry,
Rob Mobley

Thanks for your comments! Rob: that’s exactly why the story of the Dutchmen is so intriguing–because for so many, it is just a rumor…But yes, about 30 of the fliers died in training crashes and are buried at Cedarlawn Cemetery in Jackson.

My uncle, Harry Lange was a Dutch Pilot and trained at Hawkins Field. IT is so nice that PBS did a program about the Dutch Pilots stationed here at Hawkins Field. To Bad there was not some kind of Museum at Hawkins Field and some of the old buildings left as a rememberance of those days. Thanks to you all and all who made the program possible.I understand that Camp Shelby has information about the Dutch pilots at the museum outside of Hattiesburg Ms. So great

We are on our way to Jackson. My father was one of the officers with the Dutch in 1942.. And I was born in Jackson at that time. Can we just go to the cemetery and see the graves? We are leaving Biloxi tomorrow for Jackson. cell phone 1 559-760-0556

This is an absolutely fascinating story. I was thrilled to see when flying with a friend out of Hawkins Field, the Old Terminal nearly fully restored. The video mentioned above is also a fascinating documentary and very well done. Most people do not realize that Jackson during this period had 700 Dutch speaking guests with over 300 German P.O.W.’s only ten miles west. Because the community was so inundated with Dutch accents (1% of the population of 60,000), no one paid any mind when an escaped German officer walked right into the Heildelberg Hotel and booked a room for the night, wrote a complaint letter to the US President, and snuck back into the POW Camp Clinton before roll call the next morning.

My father, Lt. H.H.J. Simons, was a Dutch pilot turned fighter pilot during the air battles in the Dutch East Indies. He did teach at Jackson’s Dutch flying school. I am most interested in finding out more about the school and the men who participated for an article I am writing.

Hi. I am sitting here with my friend from College (in Madison, MS) whose father was stationed at Hawkins field maintaining the aircraft. We were looking at her Dad’s copy of the Jackson Army Air Base annual . . . your father’s photo is shown in the book.

Very interesting! Iwas one of the Dutch airmen trained at Jackson in 1942/43. As my wife Janet, who also escaped to Australia, was also in Jackson we lived off base. Our first US address was at 511, Mississippi Street, then the welcoming and “warm” home of Mr. and Mrs. Waddell!
After completing my training I was posted to England, but as Janet was pregnant at the time she stayed in Jackson, where our son Andre John was born at the Jackson Infirmary on 28 June 1943! He now lives in California. Later in 1943 Janet and baby joined me in England. Much later we moved to Ottawa, Canada to live near our daughter. Janet died in 2007 and I now live in a retirement home near Ottawa. I will end by saying `Thank you Jackson, and Jerald, Rob, Leionie, Vivian, Jay, Denise and Amanda (3 times)!, Andre Hissink.

Hi. My friend from college had her Dad serve there maintaining the aircraft. She has his Jackson Army Air Base annual that we have been looking at. She has been trying to find a copy the video she could be purchase but have been unable to learn who to contact. Can you help.

Hi Amanda, what a great documentary you, Will and Larry have put together.
My father Sargent Major Joost K. Minderhoud was one of the dutch flight instructors refugies from Kalidjatie, East Indies that made it to Jackson along with my mother Mien and my sister Marcelle who was less than a year old at that time. I was born in December 1942 in Jackson. Sadly enough my father was one of the last casualties in 1944 when his B25 crashed near Jacksonville Florida. He is buried in Cedar Lawn cemetery and his name is enscribed on the monument. I understand that this coming Veteran’s day a ceremony will be held at the cemetery by one of the local Veteran’s organizations. Any other details avalable?

Dear Mr. Minderhoud,
I recognize your father’s name from the monument. The annual ceremony has changed dates several times, and it is now being held each May. The Mississippi Armed Forces Museum is the primary organizer of the ceremony. I will add you to our email list, so that we can send updates. Please let me know if you are ever in Jackson!

Dear Amanda,
I thought that the last ceremony change was to November 11th and I was prepared to travel from Southern California to Jackson to be present. It would have been my father’s 70th anniversary of his passing. I appreciate you adding me to your email list to keep me updated. Also please feel free to email me any other articles and/or links you may have on the Dutch Fliers in Mississippi. And I will be certain to let you know when I am in Jackson. Thanks!

My aunt Thilda Verbeek was married with lieutenant-colonel J.J. Zomer.
He was training flyers in the Dutch East Indies (nowadays Indonesia) just before WW 2 in Kali Djati on the Island Java. He succeeded to escape from the airbase, when the Japs were already there, to Australië (Perth). After a few time he went with almost 800 Dutch flyers and personel to Jackson (Miss.) and continued his job training Dutch flyers in modern American military airplanes in co-ordination with the U.S army air force.

My granddad Siem van der Molen was also in Jackson that period. He was marconist and violist at the base. Does somebady new hem? He was married with Bette Barber foto reporter. Also the brother of my grandma was there i think his name was te Roller.

Bart,
We have done some research on Siem van der Molen and Bette Barber. She was a reporter and photographer for the local newspaper. MDAH holds her photographs of the Dutchmen, and there are several images of Van der Molen.

I was born August 21,1942 and was a small child when one of the Dutch fliers crashed in my grandfathers backyard about 100 yards from his house. My Mother, Glenna Mathis Gaddy and her mother were inside when they heard the plane sputter and then the crash behind the house. My Mom
Immediately ran to see the crash they heard. Getting as close as possibly safe she watched as the plane and pilot were engulfed in flames. Mom passed away 11/21/2017 and only a few months earlier this year she repeated the terrible crash to me again. She always felt guilty as she and my grandmother left me in a baby bed asleep to witness the trade by. My grand father farmed and each year after, he would plow up a gauge or instrument that he kept in his garage. I was always fascinated by looking and handling them and hearing again about the crash. My later understanding of the flight training was the pilots took off from Hawkins Field in Jackson, MS and would practice land at. He Crystal Springs airport that was 1/4 mile directly North of my grandfather’s house.
The family often wondered what of the pilot’s family. Not sure of the year or day of the crash. Would love to know.

Thank you for sharing this. I having the Honor book of 1942-1943 of the Royal Netherlands Military Flying-school in the USA.
With hundreds of photos, so if somebody looking for this,please send me an email.

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Welcome! Access to featured items is available at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson unless otherwise specified. Research requests posted in the comments section are not routed to the library. Please contact the Reference Desk with your request at 601-576-6876 or refdesk@mdah.state.ms.us.